Mike Hesse

Growing up in Sioux City, Iowa, Blue Ox CEO Mike Hesse often heard stories about his grandfather selling roller mills door-to-door. Hesse’s dad sold the same product for his business Automatic Equipment Manufacturing Co. at the Iowa State Fair.

Hesse started his first business in elementary school, selling toys and baseball cards at garage sales. As a teenager, he worked at his dad’s strip-mall yogurt shop. He convinced his dad to let him take the yogurt in a trailer to customers who were not stopping by the store. By 16, Hesse was selling yogurt and other refreshments at local baseball games and events, and also working his first job at Blue Ox on the assembly line.

Hesse graduated with a business degree in 1998 from Briar Cliff University. Out of college, he worked in the beef industry, where he soon became an executive. When his father passed in 2014, Hesse left his job, feeling drawn to the family business.

At that time, Automatic Equipment products made up 1 percent of the company, with Blue Ox products contributing to the other 99 percent. By the time Hesse became CEO in 2019, closer to 20 percent of company products were Automatic Equipment agricultural ones. Hesse remains sole owner and chairman of Blue Ox/Automatic Equipment Manufacturing.